Both children love performing but cost of all the classes is out of our price range!! Help

Be realistic in how much people earn.

I remember one of dcs dance teachers telling the parents that whilst it is fantastic to be in a West End show not to be under any illusion that to be a dancer or background person is not in any shape or form a well paying job.
If you are only in it for the money then take a job in an office as you will probably earn more.

Dd knows some of the entertainment crew who have been stranded on empty cruise ships out at sea. They were there for months.
The situation was completely dire.

One of my friends is an ex actress. She has kept in touch with a lot of people from her quite prestigious drama school. One of whom is quite famous.
A lot have gone on to have quite ordinary jobs and businesses out of the industry as she has. Those that have continued with the business get enough work so they could buy a house, get married, have children and live.
You will never have heard of them but they do have an income but it is more a voice over here or a part in a play for a suburban theatre company there.

Dancers do have a limited span.

I know several youngsters who've gone to bird and Laine with only dance experience (just a local dance school doing modern/ballet/tap) followed by a two year performing arts course at the local F.E. college, so I guess it depends whether your dc are more interested in the dance or drama side of things. One is a dancer in the west end, another on a cruise ship, the other is still at Laine.

So that's over £100 a term per each 1-hour class.

You are being ripped off. What sort of dance is it? Are any of the classes split by ability or level of training, not just by age?

I suggest you look at the prices for 1 hour lessons in dance at other local dance schools. One of the dance schools my dd went to charged about £400 for unlimited classes - they could go to as many as they wanted. Mine did about 5 ballet classes, one modern, one jazz and one tap a week. Several of the ballet classes were for 1.5 hours each.

The reason those girls are in the 'elite' class is probably because they also take dance classes elsewhere. It is highly likely that the successful alumni did too. Most serious performing arts students do exams in the dance genres at a dance school and do shows with a theatre school as an extra on top of their usual classes.

Where are you based op? As an ex-actress and parent of a performer I feel you are being taken advantage of by the current dance school. I don't think dance schools offer the best drama training facilities-you would be better sending your dc to a reputable dance school that focuses on training rather than competitions and a separate local drama centre such as a youth theatre. Also keep your eye out for any amateur dramatic company who are looking for kids to be involved.
My middle daughter is a performer who has been in west end shows , films,ads etc however it's been driven by her completely. I have been thought of as a pushy mum by other parents who don't know us but having been in the industry myself I have tried to distance all my children from it and won't allow her to do certain projects that I feel take the piss. Thankfully she is now too tall for kids theatre (5ft ) and so is focusing on film/camera work and her writing which is equally as important in this business. She is due to return to dancing next week but it's more a social for her now. We would rather she opted for uni rather than a drama school as I don't feel it's important now to have a formal 3 year theatre training- it's almost antiquated with the amount of good camera based work on Netflix and independent online channels etc. Personally I wouldn't consider a full time stage school as the academic side of them is generally poor compared to the local Comps round here. I feel parents are pressured into continuing paying huge fee's on the promise of "professional " training especially in musical theatre-so my advice is to step away from the dance school for a few weeks, take a breather let the kids go back to school. Find a good singing teacher-teenage voices are very changeable and you will need to look into someone who knows about vocal breaks and techniques rather than just a general singing teacher.
Then look into local youth theatres which have an active teenage group.
Good luck and don't feel the pressure to sign up for more and more-do what's right for you as a family. You will not damage your kids future chances of performing by stepping back from all these classes.

I agree with every word of @dodobookends post but wanted to highlight this paragraph:

Take a long hard look at the student successes of your dc's school. Do they get a lot of students into top full-time performing arts training? If so, where? And what happens to them after that? Do they go off and get jobs in the West End, or as backing singers or dancers on tour with big pop stars, or do they get contracts on Princess Cruises, or do they end up back at the school they started from, and end up getting basic teaching qualifications so they can teach the next generation of wannabe kids?

And stress that ALL of the above, even the last sentence, would be considered HUGE success. Don't be remortgaging the house to create two dance teachers. And I love dance teachers.

I'd agree with the comments regarding the importance of ballet. My daughter trained specifically as a dancer, but she has quite a lot of friends who went down the MT route and ballet was a big part of both the selection process and the training at all the schools and colleges they went to. It really is the core dance discipline and teaches them so much. If a dancer has a good secure ballet technique it gives them the tools they need to diversify into other genres later on. I appreciate that ballet doesn't appeal to everyone and that it probably doesn't seem as relevant to your DCs as some of their other classes, or as much fun, but I would really encourage you to prioritise good ballet tuition. Get the foundations right and they can add other stuff in later.
Good luck to your DCs. It is a very tough profession with many pitfalls and very few will "make it big" so its always good to have a plan B as well.There are many benefits to training in the performing arts and loads of transferable skills so my personal view is that it is rarely wasted. It is an arduous journey, that often doesn't take you to the destination that you'd originally planned for, but it can be a very enjoyable one all the same. Getting the balance right between being realistic and crushing dreams can be tricky as a parent but my attitude was that I would support my children's dreams as much as I could but not if it started to harm family life or put us into significant debt. There were a few times when I felt like things were getting out of control and I was being pressured into agreeing to things just because everyone else was doing them. It is really hard to say no but sometimes it is right for the whole family to do that. Including the children - I have seen young performers, athletes etc "burned out" in their teens from over training. Never underestimate the value of rest, and of just being a kid.

How many hours classes a week do they get for £650 a term?

You keep saying 'drama school'. If they are both keen on MT then you shouldn't be looking at drama schools. Drama schools are for actors.

If they want to be in the West End in musicals, then they need to be trained in ballet, jazz, tap and singing. Possibly commercial dance as well. That's the only way they will get into MT colleges at 18.

Local theatre schools that do loads of all-singing-all-dancing spectaculars tend to often concentrate far more in rehearsals and in coaching 'elite' teams than they do on proper training in classes for a solid grounding in good technique.

What does the school mean by 'musical theatre classes'? What actual technical training is provided in those classes and in which disciplines? What are the professional qualifications and experience of the teachers? Where did they train?

Take a long hard look at the student successes of your dc's school. Do they get a lot of students into top full-time performing arts training? If so, where? And what happens to them after that? Do they go off and get jobs in the West End, or as backing singers or dancers on tour with big pop stars, or do they get contracts on Princess Cruises, or do they end up back at the school they started from, and end up getting basic teaching qualifications so they can teach the next generation of wannabe kids?

Sorry to be brutal, but this is a hard industry to break into, and for 95% of even the most enthusiastic and ambitious, it is only ever going to be a hobby.

By the way, lots of kids give up ballet because it starts to get a bit difficult, not because they don't need it. Many dance schools refuse to let kids do modern dance or jazz classes unless they do ballet as well. It has to be ballet + other classes. It really is that important for technique in the other disciplines to have good ballet technique.

You don't really learn drama in that sort of class environment. What you want by that age is plays, lots and lots of plays with good directors. You might even be better angling them towards school drama to be honest. Is there a youth theatre near you? (Obvs don't know what's going on with Covid). I would take the drama right out of the equation and find another, cheaper route for that and then continue with 2 or 3 dance styles, one being ballet.

I actually think they're both too young for formal singing lessons but I know that I am very out of step with that...

I think you absolutely can cut this back and you shouldn't feel bad if you do. Also who is telling you the cheaper school has a bad rep? Is it the expensive school, or other parents who are very bought into being at 'the best' place?

@aladdinisalive ballet is the key to MT as I said earlier it is the core to all the other dance styles. If I had had not been able to afford everything for DD the advice from MT professionals was stick with community MT and do ballet, don't bother with anything.
But you should be aware that going on further is not cheap, there Arts awards, but they do not cover full fees and the don't cover kit - 4 different pairs of shoes ( tap, ballet, character and jazz).

@aladdinisalive apologies for assuming your children were both girls, I have a son who does ballet. From what you've said above, I'm glad we're only focusing on one discipline at the moment rather than becoming a Triple Threat Performer! Haha!

It's so hard, through family and personal friendships at drama and dance schools, I've seen numerous people 'make it' to 18+ dance/theatre schools and then not make it commercially, be plagued by injury and a couple have serious mental breakdowns. Realistically, longer term options seem to be teaching, or having to work a normal job on top of chasing the dream. In most cases they have ended up totally skint as well. Not as if any of that matters when you're a teenager and its all you want!

I dance alongside some teenagers and some of them are certainly pulling back classes to help manage the load of GCSE/A Levels. The sheer volume of homework is so much more than we had to contend with. It also sounds like your daughter may not be a natural fit for performing if she's embarrassed around friends. Is it definitely something she wants, or has she just got wrapped up competing with her brother?

That is an eye watering amount of money! My initial instinct with what is being asked for is the school is a massive money making machine and hardly objective in giving you advice.

I attend a dance school as an advanced ballet adult and there are a good number of children have gone off to London dance/theatre schools, practical dance degree courses. As a comparison, I think they're paying about £400 per term for a full range of dance classes, plus private tuition. Some of them have gone to broader theatre schools, but dance has been their lead skill. Many of them are taking additional private singing lessons and involved in youth drama companies too.

The problem with your children wanting to be West End stars is that they need to be good at dancing, singing and acting. I wonder with such a high number of different classes they may end up being a jack of all trades, master of none? I saw your OP mentioned a ballet class, if that is a new discipline for them, that's extremely late to be starting something like that. I have heard over the years that commercial auditions will throw in ballet as part of the process to weed out half the girls instantly!

I agree with the PP that I'd be sitting down with your girls and looking at what they are enjoying the most, what type of classes they are naturally more talented in. I'd also be having a frank discussion with the school to talk about a realistic budget for classes and how that budget should be best spent.

Seeing how the school respond will tell you everything you need to know about how much of a money making machine they are. Our dance school is incredibly supportive, nurturing. I know our Principal (who has been in business for 40+ years) would be extremely open to such a conversation, advising realistically about the potential of a child and where to focus attention of theatre school was a realistic option.

MrsAvocet

Birds and Laines I would have said were dance based with a little MT thrown in rather than drama.

If you wanted drama I wouldn’t go to a dance school.

That sounds like a hard sell.

My friend went to one of the top
London drama schools and the only classes she did were for ballet.

IMO the potential for unfairness with a scholarship application where one DD gets in and not the other is far less than the actual unfairness of not letting either of them try because you feel that the younger DD isn’t capable of winning a scholarship. An audition panel might be looking for quite different things to what you see, but in any case, to hold one of them back because of the other’s limitations would be awful. If they want to apply, and understand that if they are offered a place without a scholarship (or without enough of a scholarship - often it doesn’t cover the full cost, and parents can still wind up paying more than they expected) it is not a viable option, then let the audition panel decide. MT is a very competitive field, and your DDs need to understand that not every opportunity will be open to both of them for all sorts of different reasons.
Re the fees at their current school, is there any possibility of helping in the baby classes in order to earn a partial fees reduction in their own classes? Lots of schools offer this. Have you told the principal that you are struggling? They may be able to offer a sibling discount.
Good luck!

Also do they want to train in drama or MT?

It's not for you to decide who out of the two of them would get a scholarship or even a place. The things a future school is looking for might not be the same things your current school is teaching/encouraging so you do have to give them both equal access - that said, it doesn't have to be the frankly ridiculous amount/cost of classes your current school is offering!

I would encourage them to take control - give each girl a budget and let them plan their own lessons accordingly. They can't both do everything and that is totally OK, they need to either focus on their strengths or pick classes that will strengthen their weaknesses. You absolutely should not get a second job to fund this.

Well first, I would seriously look at the odds of this being a valid career path. Even the most talented performers need luck to succeed.

I would also look into what is available through your school. Do they have a drama department, choir? Do they perform plays? It isn’t the same as a dedicated school, but these free or low-cost opportunities can be good training.

The other girl did drama at school and had singing lessons and was in a choir.

My niece was in a couple of amateur theatre shows. That was pretty much it.

I know a couple of girls who got into good drama schools without doing any of that stuff.

Well good dance/singing tuition doesn't come cheap but that sounds extortionate. And I can assure you that lots of young people do get into good dance and drama colleges without their parents having spent that kind of money on classes. I know several young people who have gone to some of the better musical theatre colleges like Bird and Laine in the last few years. They have all been strong dancers and decent singers but none has had a huge amount of drama experience so it is obviously possible to do it without having all three disciplines to the same standard.
I would be looking elsewhere. It sounds like this school is emotionally blackmailing you somewhat. You won't be ruining your daughters' chances if you don't pay for all this. Even at 18 colleges are still very much looking for potential, not a finished product.